Cleaning as Self-Care 💆‍♂️

Because your space needs its own skincare routine.

Photo via Pexels

There’s a lot going on right now. Lots of panic and stress and bad news every day. And with most of us stuck at home for the foreseeable future, now is a perfect time for a little (or a lot) of self care. Maybe that’s easier said than done. Maybe by now you’ve heard it from so many Instagram skincare brands that it doesn’t mean anything to you anymore. But I mean it. If you can, you have to make the time to take care of yourself.

For some people, that means a bath and a rigorous skincare routine. For others it might be exercise, yoga, or gardening. Having tried almost all of the above and more, I realized I forgot the most important piece of the self-care puzzle for me. Cleaning! Duh.

Now before you start thinking I’m out (in) here living in a pool of my own filth, know that I do clean regularly. But indulging in every hobby I’ve ever been interested in, trying to feign productivity, and cooking at home almost every single day makes a bigger mess than usual. And I’m the type of person to leave a mess overnight if I’m in the middle of, say, hemming all of the curtains in the house (with exactly zero prior experience!).

Since our quarantine started, I have taken up most of the things that had previously been failed New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve challenged myself to learn to use my sewing machine. I’ve been playing the piano a lot more. And of course, this newsletter is a product of all of my extra time to devote to some of the things I enjoy. There are days when Adam and I work on house projects or don’t work at all and just enjoy each other’s company playing video games or taking walks or cooking together. I’m finding that I’m actually pretty well built for this pace of life. In other words, I’ve not gone completely crazy (yet) and I hope some of this way of life carries over when things go back to something like normal. Here’s a nice representation of me these days:

That said, there are days when the heaviness of our reality takes hold. These are the days when I do nothing all day or want to spend the day completely alone. On these days the mess of all my unfinished tasks and projects adds to the weight and feels exhausting instead of inspiring. This is when I take a moment to assess my mess and clean it up! Clear your headspace by clearing your physical space. Nothing makes me feel lighter and fresher than cleaning, dusting, and even rearranging furniture to give me a fresh perspective. That’s what I did yesterday. I played Doja Cat Radio on Spotify and I deep cleaned. 

I find that this is also a good opportunity to think about our relationship with our objects. They are the things that are constantly surrounding us. They make our living spaces our homes. They help define who we are.

Back at the height of Netflix’s “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” when all those crazed Karens were ignorantly hating on the KonMari method, I read Margaret Dilloway’s HuffPost article titled “What White, Western Audiences Don’t Understand About Marie Kondo’s ‘Tidying Up.’” In the article, Dilloway explains that Shinto spirits, called Kami, are present everywhere, including in our inanimate objects. The KonMari method is rooted in this belief, and so all of our possessions have an innate dignity and we should honor and respect them.

I can’t say I’m an expert on Shinto beliefs, but this is one cultural practice I hope to carry into my own life. Here’s a quote from Dilloway: 

“Japanese culture, like any, is not monolithic, but the expectation to respect where you live and work — and therefore other people — is ingrained into many Japanese households that practice Shinto traditions. Treasuring what you have; treating the objects you own as not disposable, but valuable, no matter their actual monetary worth; and creating displays so you can value each individual object are all essentially Shinto ways of living. Even if you don’t have the space for shelves of books or can’t afford a dresser with enough drawers, make what you have work for you, instead of being unhappy that you don’t have more.”

I think this is a beautiful way to live! So, feeling particularly spiritual about my home yesterday, as I was cleaning I took each item off my shelves, dusted it off, and tried to show it gratitude for its service to my home and my life. After a few hours of decluttering, wiping, dusting, sweeping, and rearranging, I felt so positive and open in my space. I can’t stress enough how good it feels to breath new air into your living space (if only it were warm enough to open the windows). It’s certainly a form of self-care to clear your physical and mental space, it’s certainly a form of self-care to name your gratitudes, but it’s also care for the parts of you that often get forgotten: your stuff.